Discovering my Strengths
Why does everyone love to ask about your weaknesses?
When you’re growing up or you’re being interviewed: you always get asked that question: “what are your strengths and weaknesses?”
Somehow, I would focus on the weaknesses, knowing what they are and how I can try to improve them. While that can help a bit, what tends to happen when we focus on what we aren’t great at can turn negative in a heartbeat. Then, I heard about the idea of not focusing on what I am weak at but focusing on what I am strong at.
I had first heard about this concept when Eric was in MBA school when he had to discover his. I heard about a couple years later when my sweet friend Lauren McGhee, a StrengthsFinder Coach, brought it to my attention. I had met with her and took the test. The assessment gave me my top 5 strengths. It was a neat thing to do, but I’ll be honest I wasn’t in a place in life to dig deeper into what it all meant. So, a couple of years later, when things had gotten to a point when the self-doubt and lack of purpose were hitting me like a ton of bricks, I dusted that paper off and decided to revisit it.
See for a while, because of circumstances around me, I started to question who I was and if I was “good enough”. I let other people’s opinions and comments seep into my heart and mind. It is so easy to let this happen and no matter how strong you think you are, it can happen to anyone.
Discovering my strengths reaffirmed to me that who I am is exactly who I am supposed to be! These strengths make me who I am and it has pointed me in the direction I am supposed to go in every aspect of life. So, each day I spend some time either reading up on or reflecting on MY Top 5 which are: Harmony, Learner, Includer, Belief, and Developer.
You can discover your strengths by using the assessment in the book StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath.
By discovering my strengths, I’ve been able to:
Discover what I naturally do best
Develop my greatest talents
Live my best life
There are several other healthy benefits to this.
If you are interested in learning more, please leave a comment or question below!
asha
Your Inner Light
“Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.”
- Katherine Dunham